Old Books

I’m not talking about Frankenstein or Catcher in the Rye, I’m talking about MY old books — books I wrote years ago and am now re-reading.

Cringe.

I have three side projects going right now. Yeah, I know. But I’m waiting on line edits for COMPULSION and what else do I do? Clean? Ha!

The first is taking my first six books and digitally publishing outside of the North American market. I paid to have them scanned (because I don’t have the original edited files anymore — wonder how THAT happened!) and am proofreading them primarily for scanning and formatting errors. But I really, really want to edit them. I’m resisting (for the most part) because it would take me far too long (and I’d wanted to have this done two years ago!) My goal is to have the first three proofed and sent to my ebook formatter before I get the COMPULSION edits back, which could come any day. Once the first trilogy is up, I’ll work on the next trilogy.

THE PREY: My first book, January 27, 2005.

The problem with this first trilogy is that my writing has greatly improved since THE PREY. While I love the story and the characters, I notice I’m making amateur mistakes — mostly word choices and repetition and some cringe-worthy phrasing. But this trilogy has been published for nearly a decade, and I don’t want to deeply edit it. I had to make a conscious choice to focus on actual proofreading, and since Random House/Ballantine have great copy editors, most of the errors relate to the scanning process, not publishing. I am fixing blatant problems with sentences — things that I would not write today — and trimming some repetition. But I have to resist any re-writing.

The Kim Killion designed cover for the digital market outside of North America

What I recognize most of all is how I’ve grown as a writer since I first wrote THE PREY in 2004. In fact, it was ten years ago this month that I turned in my revised manuscript to my editor at Ballantine. They’d bought my book in March of 2004 and Charlotte gave me some notes, most of which dealt with the last 150 pages of the book. I was scared to death I would screw everything up during revisions, but ended up with a much better book. Ten years later I recognize that THE PREY was the best I could write at the time, but today I am a tighter, cleaner, better writer. (Which gives me hope that I’ll continue to grow as a writer and storyteller.) I have the skill now that I didn’t then to rewrite this book and make it stronger … but I would need to make some story changes and I’m not willing to do that. There shouldn’t be two versions of these books out there.

But re-reading these books is certainly humbling. I never re-read my books, so this is all new to me. I know I’ve become a better writer, a better storyteller, since I started. Even my recent books I don’t want to re-read for fear I’ll hate something in them. I don’t know if other authors re-read their own books. I don’t even re-read other people’s books — once I know what happens, that’s it.

My second project is re-reading the two novellas and two books that make up my Seven Deadly Sins series because I want to write MORTAL SIN and release it late this fall. I have no traditionally published book out until January 2015 (when the Mass Market edition of NOTORIOUS will be available!) and the next Lucy book isn’t due until October. I’m giving myself until Aug 1. Then I’ll write the Lucy book (I’ve already started Lucy #9 — research, working on the opening scene which I haven’t nailed yet because I’m not 100% certain of the story … but it’ll come. It always does.) So if MORTAL SIN isn’t done and to my editor by Aug 1, it won’t be out this fall. One of the biggest problems (for me) is that I’m very deadline driven. I write better with a set date that something is due. Writing an indie book — that doesn’t have a deadline that anyone but me cares about — is hard. There are so many other distractions …

But I’ll be done reading CARNAL SIN today, and then go through all my notes. I started MORTAL SIN four years ago so I have a basic opening (though it needs major work!) It’s not like I’m starting a brand new project with new characters, so I think that I can get this done, even with everything else I need to do.

The first book of the Seven Deadly Sins series.

What I’ve noticed, however, is that even five years ago, when I wrote ORIGINAL SIN, I made some of the same mistakes I made in THE PREY and I still make now — the difference is, I recognize them now. For example, repetition. I tend to say the same thing in a variety of different ways. But in ORIGINAL SIN in particular, I made some major mistakes. Errors that, honestly, should have been caught by the copyeditor. For example, a character dies in the ambulance en route to the hospital. Later, another character mentions his doctor did everything to save him but he died in emergency. See me hitting my head on my desk. Ultimately, those errors are my fault, but they should have been caught at some point by someone. This wasn’t an isolated mistake.

The other big problem is something that reviewers noticed and commented on — the first 100 pages of ORIGINAL SIN are slow. It’s not because of the complexity of the story or too many things going on, as some reviewers said. After re-reading it, I know EXACTLY what the problem is and I know how to fix it. It relates directly to repetition and how I reveal backstory. It wasn’t that it was backstory heavy, because as I re-read I realized everything was important for the readers to know. It was HOW I integrated it (and the fact that I revealed the same information more than once!) Plus, I would have deleted the prologue. It wasn’t necessary and I think ultimately confused readers. The same information was revealed later in the book.

Part of the problem with ORIGINAL SIN is that a large chunk of the backstory directly related to the novella I wrote “Deliver Us From Evil” in an anthology, so it felt like there was a story before the story even though most readers didn’t read that novella. This is one of the primary reasons that when I wrote the prequel for NOTORIOUS, the first book in the Max Revere series, I intentionally wrote it as a stand-alone (much easier when the book was written first.)

And finally, my third side project, directly related to an old book. A very old book — the second book I wrote that will never see the light of day. Except …

MURDER IN THE RIVER CITY is my first indie-published original work. I released it in July of 2012 and am very happy with it. It was originally a full-length book, the 3rd manuscript I’d written, that finaled in the Daphne contest, but when I went back to it, I realized it was seriously flawed so put it aside. However, when a now-defunct magazine was looking for a serialization, I pulled it out because the premise was really strong and I loved the characters. I realized what the problems were (years after I’d written it!) and so completely rewrote it … and it ended up being a 40,000 novella, not a 90K word novel. It was much neater and cleaner so I indie published it.

Recently, I found the second manuscript I ever wrote. One that, like MURDER, had a strong premise but the story fell apart in the middle. I’m writing this as a novella. One of the best things about indie publishing is that length is not really an issue — MURDER is 40,000 words. If this second story ends up 40K or 50K, that’s okay. It might even be 60K. It’s set in Sacramento, same place as MURDER, and I’ll bring in some of the same secondary characters. The hero is DA Matt Elliott, the brother of SSA Megan Elliott from SUDDEN DEATH who ended up marrying Jack Kincaid … 🙂 Matt is best friends with JT Caruso from RCK. So even though this is a completely stand-alone story … there’s some continuity with all my other books.

I also have an idea for a Lucy Kincaid novella. Well, actually, a Patrick/Lucy Kincaid novella — Patrick & Elle get in trouble and Lucy & Sean need to bail them out. I’d like to see Elle and Lucy together, because I don’t think Lucy is going to think that Elle is good enough for her brother — which will make a nice, organic conflict between them.

So that’s what I’m doing this summer, along with researching the next Lucy and Max books. It should keep me busy. But life is too short to be bored, right?

I’ll be at Thrillerfest and RWA this July as well. Fortunately, I can write at conferences and sometimes get even more work done in my hotel room than in my home office!

If you’re a writer, do you re-read your old books? As a reader, do you re-read books? Do you think most of your favorite authors have gotten better the more they’ve written? Worse? Thoughts?

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.

17 comments on “Old Books”

Reread old books?? NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. I hired someone to make a character bible for me since my old characters were showing up as secondary characters in new works. She read all the books and put it together because I couldn’t remember information and wasn’t about to read my own stuff.

I hired someone to do the same thing! But now I really have to do this … my mom proofed the trilogy, for scanning fixes, but as I was making the fixes I couldn’t help but read it … plus, scanning doesn’t catch italics or blank lines for scene breaks, so I have manually put all those back in :/

I did recently go back and re-write my first book in my series, since I wanted to use it as a $0.99 loss leader. So I wanted it to be the best it could be. I was careful not to change the storyline or any of the characterizations, but just correct the newbie-author mistakes.

I was struck by two things. How good it was over all, and how cringe worthy it was in spots. 😀

I’ve been bracing myself recently to tackle the second book, since my inner perfectionist is demanding that I now make it as good as the 1st, and those that come later.

Hmm, I think I will go add Murder in River City to my kindle for my summer vacation reading pleasure.

There are some books I re-read. I’ve read The Hunt a couple of time, and I occasionally re-read some certain In Death books. To me it’s like watching a movie a really like multiple times. Or watching episodes of Castle over and over.
I’m so glad to hear you’re planning to write the Mortal Sin. I’m not big on supernatural plot lines, but I really enjoyed the 7 Deadly Sins books and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I can watch favorite movies over and over, and television shows — I’ve seen CASTLE all the way through twice (the second with my daughter) as well as Person of Interest (the second time with my son) and I catch different things. But books … I just don’t like re-reading them, mine or others. There are a few exceptions. I’ve read several Stephen King books twice. Some classics (re-reading when my kids read them in school.) But not many!

And I absolutely re-read books. There are some series that one the new one is released they follow on from each other. And when there can be a 6 month gap between them being released, I often need that refresher. Or, in some instances, a character just seems to ‘jump’ into my head and scream ‘re-visit me now!’. (I tend to think of books as old friends, and it’s always good to see an old friend!) I’ll often notice things on a second or third read that I didn’t pick up the first time.

My mom re-reads all her books. She has re-read the Sue Grafton series about every 3 years, usually leading up to a release. When she does a purge, she re-reads. I have friends who re-read, and have “comfort” reads — reading the same book multiple times! Maybe because I read too many mysteries, if I know what happens (who did it) I don’t want to re-read the book.

I think the genre is a part of the decision to re-read or not. Although I love the Harry Bosch series, I have never re-read one and don’t plan to. The In Death series on the other hand I have re-read a lot, but mostly for the interaction between the characters and not the solving the crime part.

Since I’m still unpublished, I do go back and re-read older manuscripts. Mostly to see if there’s some way I can make them viable again, breathe new life, encourage someone to take a look… I really need to do this with my first two books, because I still believe in them, but like you, I’ve grown as a writer so I know they need work. Right now, though, I’m working on editing something I finished the first draft of a few years ago, but never really edited or polished. I can’t imagine looking at my older works after they’d already been published, though. At least now they aren’t set in stone.

We all grow as writers — and I think sometimes, we can edit books to death. I did that with my very first manuscript … it will never be published. I don’t even think I have the electronic file anywhere, which is a good thing! 🙂 But some of the stories are simply good stories … and as we gain insight into our strengths and weaknesses, we can rewrite them the way they should have been written. Good luck!

I’m excited to hear there is gonna be a another of the Deadly Sin books. I really liked Original Sin and have Carnal Sin on my really long wish list. 🙂 I can’t believe I forgot about Murder in the River City, I hafta get caught up….

I re-read Hawaii probably 5 times because it was so long I skipped parts. Each time I read it I found out something new but usually I read a book once and done.

Some authors I read as soon as the book came out, bought the hardback because I couldn’t wait for paperback but now I only read them if someone passes one on. the writing and storyline have gotten bad somehow.

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[…] I’m not speaking about Frankenstein or Catcher within the Rye, I’m speaking about MY previous books — books I wrote years in the past and at the moment are re-studying. Cringe. I’ve three aspect tasks going proper now. Yeah, I do know. However I’m… Read more › […]

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Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.